


Superheroes

by Encalhado



Category: Captain America (Movies), Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Other, Pre-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29485671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Encalhado/pseuds/Encalhado
Summary: Aaron and Jack met Captain America at the Smithsonian!Translation of my own work. not my first language, unbeta-ed, errors to be expected.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & Jack Hotchner, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 20





	Superheroes

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [超级英雄](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28834911) by [Encalhado](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Encalhado/pseuds/Encalhado). 



> here to remind everyone that Jack wore a Captain America t shirt the day his mother was killed.

Jack has been dying to go to the Captain America exhibition at the Smithsonian for two weeks now.

Aaron’s never denied him anything, but it wouldn’t be the first time his job got in the way. They have been in LA for 9 days and they weren’t any closer to catching this unsub. He called Jack and asked him to just go with Jessica, worrying that he might cause him to miss the exhibition entirely. But Jack’s made up his mind, either they went together or not going at all.

Jack definitely took after his stubbornness.

The BAU caught the unsub on day12, Aaron finished his paperwork on the plane, got some off days from Cruz—though it was just a Friday so they could have a three day weekend—and asked a favor from Dave, who was able to procure the tickets to the already sold-out event. On Saturday morning, he brought the overly excited eight-year-old to the Smithsonian.

The exhibition wasn’t all about Captain America; they also showed a lot of models of planes, jets and cannons that were used during the Second World War, there were also maps and photographs of war zones, mostly where Captain America and the Howling Commandos had fought, a board beside each photo explaining their glorious wins.

They went on to the secondary—or the primary—exhibition hall. The corridor was covered in giant picture of Captain America looking into far distance, his gaze focused and determined. Upbeat music coming from the speaker, the narrator was introducing the visitors to the man of the day.

“Look, dad, Captain America is as tall as you.” Jack pointed at the numbers on the LED board, “but he’s so much heavier.”

“That’s why he’s the superhero.” He answered, “It’s too late for me, but if you eat your vegs and work out more, maybe you can be as strong.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “psst, he’s strong because he has super soldier serum. Nice try, dad.” 

Aaron sighed. Jack’s too old to be tricked now, what a bummer.

They went further into the hall. In the center displayed the uniforms of the Howling Commandos, Captain America’s red, blue, and white costume was in the center, on his left was his second-in-command, Bucky Barnes’s.

“Bucky Barnes was the only Howling Commando to give his life, in the service of his country.” The narrator supplied helpfully right as when Aaron was reading Bucky’s short biography.

Considering the cruelty of the European battles, and the fact that the team had always been assigned to the most dangerous missions, it was a miracle that only one member was killed. A miracle for everyone else maybe.

Aaron looked at the screen that was rolling footages of Captain America and Bucky Barnes’s dual interviews, looked at the way they smiled at each other and suddenly thought of a joke.

Historians would say they were roommates.

“Hey, dad, look.” Jack tagged his hand, pointing at a man.

“What?”

“I think he’s Captain America.”

Jack was running towards that man before Aaron could stop him. Jack ran over to the man and poked him lightly in the arm to get his attention and—

HOLY COW THAT WAS CAPTAIN AMERICA.

Aaron rushed over, just in time to hear Jack’s elated voice, “you’re my favorite Avenger!” Jack was half whispering so no one noticed them.

“Jack.” Aaron said to him, “we shouldn’t bother him.”

“Oh!” Jack covered his mouth with his hands, smiling sheepishly, “Sorry.”

Captain America gave them a polite smile and said, “It’s OK.”

Aaron didn’t know what he had expected from Captain America’s looks but he sure didn’t expect him to be so…pretty. Like Achilles and Alexander the Great.

Perhaps that was another thing those great warriors had in common.

“My dad is a superhero too!” Jack proclaimed out of nowhere.

Aaron stared at his son in shock, the boy only returned him with an innocent smile.

Everyone knew that Aaron was Jack’s hero, the tale further progressed after Jack dressed up as him for Halloween and claimed that Spider-Man was not a real superhero. Jack hasn’t changed him mind about that so far and he was never ashamed to own up to it, it made Aaron proud and feel a deeper sense of responsibility.

But right now, Aaron could say with certainty that Jack was just being a little shit so they could prolong the encounter. That and probably embarrass him in front of Captain freaking America.

Aaron shifted his attention back to Captain America, the man raised his eyebrows as a silent question.

“I’m FBI, Behavioral Analysis Unit.” He explained, “Not YOU kind of superhero. No, I’m not a hero AT ALL.” Gosh the last time he stumbled like this was when he was being brutally eviscerated by his scary professor in law school in a mock trial!

Captain America nodded thoughtfully, his next words shocked Aaron.

“We both wear uniforms, fight crimes on behalf of the government, I think you ARE my kind of superhero.”

Profiler’s instinct was on line in a instant. It didn’t strike him as the kind of performative humbleness politicians were so well versed with, no, his tone and expressions showed no ego or arrogance. If anything it was guilt, a guilt that was disguised as an awkward encouragement.

For any other person, visiting their own museum exhibition would’ve been profiled as a demonstration of their narcissism, Aaron was fairly certain Tony Stark was a grandiose narcissist. But the man in front of him, wearing plain dark cloth, lowered cap hat, he was trying not to catch any attention. His body language was stiff, meaning he wasn’t comfortable with the amount of people around him as well as the attention, even though wasn’t directed at him personally. The most telling was his face, he looked sad and grievous, those blue eyes were imbued with decades of loneliness and pain.

He was not here to relive his glory. He was here to mourn.

“See?” Jack bumped him with his body, dragging him back from his thoughts and back to reality, a proud look on his face, “My dad is a superhero.”

“He is.”

Aaron cleared his throat, this conversation shouldn’t be about him, there shouldn’t have been a conversation in the first place. “We really shouldn’t keep you any longer.”

Jack knew better than to test Aaron’s patience, but this was Captain America! How many people have actually met Captain America?! “Can we take a photo?” he plead, even used his puppy eyes.

“Sure.” Captain America agreed without hesitation. He put his arm around the boy, letting the father took the pictures.

“Thank you so much, Captain.” Aaron extended his hand out of habit, he didn’t even realize it until Captain America had grabbed his hand. Captain America’s hand was warm, his grip strong.

“Please.” Captain America smiled, “Call me Steve.”

All the trials, confrontations with serial killers, even childhood fantasies had failed to prepare Aaron for this particular moment.

“Steve.” He said, feeling the undistinguished name roll over his tongue.

This time, the smile on Steve’s face was genuine and bright. “It was nice meeting you.” Then to Jack, “Goodbye, Jack.”

“Bye Ca…Steve.”


End file.
